Charlotte Republicans Push for Sales Tax
That headline is not an attempt to grab your attention. It's the truth. Pat Mumford, a Republican member of the Charlotte City Council is leading the charge to preserve a half-cent sales tax established to help fund mass transit. The Charlotte Observer had the story over the weekend.
Charlotte City Council member Pat Mumford announced Friday he'll lead a group dedicated to preserving the county's half-cent sales tax for mass transit, and said the campaign may start advertising quickly to offset the momentum of light-rail opponents.Mumford, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and a group of supporters said that voting down the tax in November would lead to deep cuts in bus service and would almost certainly kill plans to build more light-rail lines. The result would be more congestion, they said.
It was mentioned earlier this year in a discussion about roads and mass transit that there was a group collecting signatures in Charlotte to repeal the 1998 half-cent sales. The group uses the acronym SCAT to identify itself. (Sensible Charlotte Area Transportation) By sensible, I believe they mean cars.
I know it sounds odd to have Republicans leading the charge to maintain taxes and taxes that support mass transit at that, but every once in a while we find a decent one in the bunch. Even Mayor Pat McCrory is sounding progressive on this issue.
McCrory emphasized that he won't be leading the pro-tax group. But at Friday's news conference, he spoke the longest and sounded the most passionate about saving the half-cent tax."It's much cheaper to anticipate growth now," said McCrory, a Republican, who has been heavily criticized by light-rail opponents. "If you wait to react to growth, you have waited too long."
Wow. A Republican planning ahead for growth and supporting a tax to pay for said growth? I bet Art Pope just revoked McCrory's life-time membership to JLF.
Once again, residents of Mecklenburg County will be voting on the half-cent sales tax. A majority of residents support the tax, but it isn't an overwhelming majority, so the battle is on and it looks like it will be a combined effort of Republicans and Democrats facing a loud group of Republican sound bite spouters this November. Those sound bite spouters have won in the past, so this one isn't going to be easy.
On a side note: Mumford has decided against running for re-election, so he will be able to dedicate a good deal of his time to this cause. Thanks, Pat.
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Good for Mumford
I applaud anyone who has the decency and wisdom to think ahead to generations to come. The Puppets are genetically against planning of any kind by the government . . . so thank goodness some on the right have the guts to keep the long view in mind.
Here's a relevant and interesting story in the Times about the long view and why it matters.
Thanks for posting this.
I'm sure there will be lots to talk about on this issue.
The article reports that over 60% of the revenue goes to buses and several routes would have to be eliminated and service cut back if the tax (in place since 1998 I believe) is repealed.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
i have recently seen stories on this site...
...about a private suburban water park that wants public water subsidies, and those who oppose subsidizing transit, an actual publicly owned asset.
compare and contrast, i guess...
I had no idea
how complex the issues surrounding Public Transit were (are). I spent a month one night trying to isolate different models utilized by other cities with a similar geographic/demographic as we have here in the Triangle/Triad area, just to get an idea of the specific problems they did and were encountering.
The end result was—I got drawn into a black hole of useless information floated by proponents and opponents, and retreated in disgust.
I must go back, but I'll need a bigger boat. :)
Don't forget your paddles
:)